Essay Contribution by Edin Beslagic
November 29, 2006

Mesopotamian Schools : Journal Article Review

This journal article describes both the importance of learning institutions of the ancient Near East and describes how a typical scribe upbringing was performed. The author used ancient Babylonian texts as primary evidence and his findings are corroborated by other scholars. The job of a scribe is the first known establishment of an institution created for preserving knowledge and by firm evidence it started at least as early as four millennia ago. The early need for preservation of knowledge was political and economic – land ownership, debts, agricultural production, and other economic transactions had to be recorded in order to enforce fairness toward every citizen under the law. This need for scribes was coupled with ancient Mesopotamian temples, which were centers of city-state economies and therefore their educational upbringing was likely conducted by temple officials.

Despite the temple-centric model of the ancient life, education was not solely done by temples. Actual schools, numbering in thousands, were designed to train scribes for their work as early as 2000 B.C. In fact, different classes of scribes existed to accommodate the need of the Mesopotamian civilization. The ancient word for scribe literally meant “tablet writer” – but the job titles were more colorful than that. Ancient Babylonia had an entire hierarchy of scribes designated to work as notaries, land surveyors, military recorders, writers, engravers, copyists, court advisors, secretaries and many others. It was very important to understand what sort of power scribes held in their hands. Scribes controlled all knowledge coming and going into courts; therefore, they could possibly manipulate information to their liking or cause a misunderstanding by not properly conveying their message. In fact, some court mail contains disclaimers written by scribes concerning the accuracy of a particular message. Other evidence shows that scribes communicated directly with one another by official communiqués rather than addressing a particular lugal or patesi.

It was not by coincidence that this level of writing (and the number of scribes) became as large as they were. Around 2000 B.C., a power shift created proper conditions to breed knowledge and from this time period there are many discoveries of educational texts and explosion of schools. Knowledge was, in fact, preserved by scribes because the written language was different from the spoken language of Babylonians. Written language was conducted in Sumerian (which had been a dead language for a millennia by this time) while the vernacular was Akkadian at this point. These schools, called edubba, preserved a dead language and allowed modern scholars to be able to translate them.

The many edubba, or tablet houses, were directly tied to the Babylonian culture. Evidence describes very little about their inner workings but mention all the things that pupils were supposed to mind, such as not loitering in the street, the entrance gate and the oral examination chamber. Texts state that their purposes were to educate ignorant persons and imbue them with wisdom and many practice clay tablets have been found. What is not clear, however, is how these tablet houses were connected to the local government or temple, despite their enormous importance in the economic life of Babylon. Evidence shows that most scribes were males while some scarce evidence (from an excavation at Sippar) suggests that some women were also literate. Education of children lasted for many years during which young scribes learned calligraphy and the meaning behind it.

Concluding the education process, there appears to have been a graduation ritual where a school master would informally quiz a student, purposely asking questions that would prove difficult for the student to answer. The student would be required to demonstrate his bilingual prowess (mastering Akkadian and Sumerian) and have knowledge of everyday life. The ritual would be concluded by the student becoming insolent and being reprimanded by the teacher:

“What have you done, what good came of your sitting here? You are already a ripe man and close to being aged! Like an old ass you are not teachable any more. Like withered grain you have passed the season. How long will you play around? But, it is still not too late! If you study night and day and work all the time modestly and without arrogance, if you listen to your colleagues and teachers, you still can become a scribe! Then you can share the scribal craft which is good fortune for the owner, a good angel leading you, a bright eye, possessed by you and it is what the palace needs.” (Lucas, 314)

This ritual exchange finishes on the note that pursuit of education is a life-long goal. The road to mastery was certainly not easy. A 4000 year old document described the harsh life of a student, describing an inattentive pupil who is beaten with a cane throughout the day by various school officials for various offenses (such as not showing proper respect to their teachers), ultimately resulting in the student’s unwillingness to learn and neglect of learning.
If students managed to complete their education, aside from a good career choice, additional benefits surrounded their lives because of the social status associated with their skill. Children of scribes would have comfortable lives. In one ancient text, a disappointed father scorned his son for being lazy and stated that he never forced him to labor in the fields, as it was customarily required of grown children.

It is incomprehensible for present-day students to imagine what life could have been like for them thousands of years ago. If they were lucky enough to be allowed to learn to read and write, much demand would be placed on them. It would be expected of them to be fluent in at least two languages, know 900-1600 variant characters of cuneiform, memorize approximately 30,000 lines of various texts and have life skills that would put them at a court’s service the moment they finished their education.

I personally found an interesting parallel between ancient Babylon and the modern world: literary language. The literary language of ancient Babylon was Sumerian, which was at that time no longer spoken. While it contrasted greatly to the officially spoken Akkadian of the time, it reminded me of colloquial English as compared to written English. The form of the English language that is acceptable for academic papers is not the same form that is spoken in the streets. This demonstrates that while a language may evolve (for better or worse), literary works preserve the form of the old language and prolong its proverbial shelf life. Would it take a scholar of antiquity to be able to read Shakespeare, merely a thousand years from now?

Source:
History of Education Quarterly. Vol 19. No 3.
Autumn 1979.
“The Scribal Tablet-House in Ancient Mesopotamia.”
Christopher J. Lucas.
Pages 305-332.